New York has the oldest and one of the largest populations of Caribbean Americans in the country. Every year West Indians from all over to world come to New York City on Labor Day to celebrate our rich history and culture. Things can get out of hand, but mostly it is just a gathering of hundreds of thousands of folks enjoying themselves. That many people in one place often stirs up white panic, even though St. Patrick’s Day parades can get just as or even more raucous. The police have been at the forefront of this anti-black phobia and attribute every crime committed by a black or Hispanic person to the parade. Last year they went too far and to many’s surprise they got punished for it. This year perhaps the Big Apple’s “Finest” can leave their bigotry at home and actually work to serve and protect the West Indian members of New York City.

Nearly 20 employees of the New York Police Department have faced discipline in connection with the posting of racist or derogatory comments on a Facebook page about revelers at the 2011 West Indian American Day Parade, a heavily policed annual celebration in Brooklyn on Labor Day weekend.The comments referred to “savages” and “animals,” and one poster wrote, “Let them kill each other.” The Facebook page, titled “No More West Indian Day Detail,” elicited comments from more than 150 people, many of whose names matched those of police officers.
The department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said 17 people had since been disciplined; four of those are officers facing pending departmental trials on charges of “conduct prejudicial to the good order of the Police Department,” he said. Mr. Browne said that seven had received the department’s lowest level of punishment, the equivalent of a reprimand. Six others received what is known as a command discipline — a punishment that sometimes entails a loss of up to 10 vacation days.